Businesses walking the tightrope

Businesses are required to consider changes in lifestyles and the evolution of the concept of welfare. Economic realities challenge traditional paradigms in economics. A new vocabulary is emerging to accommodate the theory to the new realities. „The new economy“, „the new transformation“, „the sharing economy“, „the subscription economy“, are only few of the expressions which reflect economic behaviors that are different from classical economics. The trend toward globalization is complemented by re-localization, the boundaries of the classical enterprise are vanishing to make way for networking, outsourcing, co-production. By combining global knowledge with local resources, regional economies get a new impetus, reaffirming their autonomy and specificity. The above paragraphs are trying to sketch a world of accelerated change, which is in fact the result of a web of interconnected events. At individual level, the wave of change is perceived by challenges - threats or opportunities - that must be addressed in each moment. Authors included in this volume and their papers take account of such evolutions and contribute at better understanding the current economic and business conditions.